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Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 69.djvu/450

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446
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY


The German censuses are particularly reliable because they have been collected for many years with great care, with a view to eliciting the degree of assimilation of the Jewish population. During the four years 1901 to 1904 there were contracted in Germany 15,635 marriages between Jews and Jewesses, and 2,700 between Jews and christians. The mixed marriages constituted consequently 17.27 per cent, of the pure Jewish marriages, or one sixth of all the Jews who married christians. It was also found that 8.01 per cent, of all the Jewesses and 9.26 per cent, of all Jews in that country married christians. In other words, every twelfth Jewish bride and every eleventh Jewish bridegroom married a christian.

The largest number of mixed marriages in Germany are contracted in the province of Prussia. There statistics for twenty-eight consecutive years are available (1876-1904), during which 71,160 pure Jewish marriages were contracted; 4,740 between christians and Jewesses and 5,062 between Jews and christian women. It was also established that the number of mixed marriages is constantly on the increase, as can be seen from the following figures:

Average Annual
Number.
1875-1879 239
1895-1899 433
1900-1904 495